Seminar: Construction in the Process Industries: Understanding Safety Process and Your Role

Event Date:

April 3, 2017

Speaker:

Deb Grubbe

Speaker Affiliation:

Operations and Safety Solutions, LLC

Time:

10:30am

Location:

HAMP 1144

Contact Name:

Becca Miller

Contact Phone:

(765) 494-2240

Contact Email:

rlmitche@purdue.edu

Priority:

No

School or Program:

Construction Engineering and Management

College Calendar:

Show

Deb Grubbe--President and Owner of Operations and Safety Solutions, LLC--will speak at 10:30am Apr. 3 in Delon and Elizabeth Hampton Hall of Civil Engineering Room 1144. She is returning as an alum to give her talk as part of the Construction Engineering and Management 40th Anniversary Speaker Series.

Construction in the Process Industries: Understanding Safety Process and Your Role

Deb Grubbe
President and Owner
Operations and Safety Solutions, LLC

April 3, 2017
10:30 AM
HAMP 1144

For more information: Becca Miller, rlmitche@purdue.edu

Abstract

Construction project excellence includes ensuring that the job meets or exceeds client expectations, and that all workers and visitors are able to walk off the job in the same manner in which they entered the gate. Additionally, nothing stops a job faster than an incident that hurts someone “outside the fence.” While a lot of time is spent focusing on occupational safety in construction, sometimes construction groups do not fully understand the importance of their role in process safety management, or PSM. Ms. Grubbe, an Emeritus Member of the Center for Chemical Process Safety and a member of the National Academy of Construction, will outline the key elements a construction manager must be sensitive to when working in the process industries.

Ms. Deborah Grubbe is Owner and President of Operations and Safety Solutions, LLC, a consultancy that specializes in enhancing returns from both hard and soft assets. Her client list includes multinational firms in the chemical, oil and gas, construction and aerospace industries. She is the former Vice President of Group Safety for BP plc, which had its two safest years ever during her tenure. Deborah was trained in the characteristics of safe operations during her 27 year career at DuPont, where she held corporate director positions in operations, engineering and safety. Her many assignments have included capital governance, project management and execution, process safety implementation, strategic safety assessments, manufacturing management, organizational change leadership and human resources. Today, Deborah works with multinationals and global clients in India, Qatar, Malaysia and Singapore. She has recently worked with the Canadian Railway System on the subject of safety culture, and has co-authored an eBook on process safety.

From 2003-2012, Deborah served as a member of the NASA Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, and was a consultant on safety culture to the Columbia Shuttle Accident Investigation Board. In May, 2012, she received the NASA Exceptional Public Service Medal from NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. Deborah currently serves on the Purdue University College of Engineering Dean’s Advisory Council, the Engineering Advisory Council for Rowan University, and also works with the Advisory Council for the Advanced Safety and Engineering Management Masters’ Program at the University of Alabama - Birmingham. She is an Emeritus member of the Center for Chemical Process Safety, and has worked with the National Academy of Sciences to support the Demilitarization of the US Chemical Weapons Stockpile. Deborah is a former member of the Board of Directors of American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), and is the former chair of the AIChE Institute for Sustainability, where she led a global effort to establish a credential in the field. She is currently leading AIChE program development in Ethics. In 2002, she received the Purdue Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award, and was named “Engineer of the Year” in the State of Delaware. In May, 2010, Deborah was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Engineering from Purdue University. In 2013, she was elected to the National Academy of Construction.

She has been active in the Delaware community; as former president and board member of the Chesapeake Bay Girl Scout Council and the YWCA of Delaware. Deborah is a board member of Girls Incorporated of Delaware, where she serves as Development Director to support minority girls' STEM interests. She was the first woman and youngest elected member on the State of Delaware Registration Board for Professional Engineers (1985-1989). During her term on the State Board, she was the Chair of the Law Enforcement and Ethics Committee. She has been active with Mentor-Net since its founding, and is a mentor with the Society for Collegiate Leadership and Achievement.

Deborah was born in suburban Chicago and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering with Highest Distinction from Purdue University. She received a Winston Churchill Fellowship to attend Cambridge University in England, where she received a Certificate of Post- Graduate Study in Chemical Engineering. Deborah is a registered professional engineer in Delaware, and is a Chartered Engineer in the United Kingdom. A Fellow of both the AIChE and the Institution of Chemical Engineers, Deborah is married to James B. Porter, Jr., of Knoxville, Tennessee. They currently reside in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania.